Some computing devices (e.g., mobile phones, tablet computers) may receive user input that is entered at a presence-sensitive display. For instance, a presence-sensitive display of a computing device may output a graphical (or “soft”) keyboard that permits the user to enter data by tapping and/or gesturing over graphical elements (e.g., keys) displayed at the presence-sensitive display. In other examples, a presence-sensitive display of a computing device may output a graphical user interface (e.g., an interface of a game or an operating system) that permits the user to enter commands by tapping and/or gesturing over other graphical elements (e.g., buttons, scroll bars) displayed at the presence-sensitive display. Some computing devices perform specific functions in response to receiving either a tap or a non-tap gesture input. For instance, some computing devices may detect a selection of a single key in response to a tap entered at or proximate to a presence-sensitive display and may detect a selection of multiple keys in response to a non-tap gesture (e.g., a swipe) entered at or proximate to the presence-sensitive display.
In some cases, a computing device may present a continuous-gesture graphical keyboard (sometimes referred to as a “combo gesture keyboard,” or “gesture keyboard”) with which a user can interact by inputting a continuous gesture that indicates a word to be input to the computing device (e.g., by sliding his or her finger over various regions of the presence-sensitive display associated with desired keys of the keyboard). In this way, continuous-gesture graphical keyboards allow a user to enter a word or group of words with a single gesture. As such, a continuous-gesture graphical keyboard may allow the user to achieve a certain degree of input efficiency.
However, some continuous-gesture keyboards have certain drawbacks. For instance, when performing a continuous gesture to input a word with many characters, a continuous-gesture keyboard may require a user to select all of characters corresponding to a word before the computing device selects the word as the intended user input. Inputting words with many characters (e.g., longer words) may therefore become tedious and/or require additional user time and effort. As such, selecting every key corresponding to a respective character of a word before the computing device outputs the word may reduce the speed at which the user is able to interact with the computing device.